City resident butchers goats in basement

A Syracuse man who butchered two goats in his basement has been charged with unjustifiable killing of animals, city police said.

A neighbor called police after he heard what he thought was a woman screaming, police said. The neighbor went out to investigate the noise and saw Sharif Aden, 33, of 229 Maplehurst Ave., slitting the throats of the goats in the cellar, police said.

Aden told police he butchered the goats for their meat. Aden said that his religion forbids him to eat meat from an animal killed with a gun, police said.

SPCA Investigator Betsy Puffer told police Aden was already being investigated by her agency and that Aden was instructed to take the goats to a butcher and to not do the job himself, police said.

Aden was keeping the live goats in his cellar in violation of city code, Puffer said. The SPCA inspected the animals about four hours before Aden killed them, Puffer said. He was told at the time to get the animals out of the home and to not butcher the animals himself, she said.

Unjustifiable killing of an animal is a misdemeanor in the state's agriculture and markets law.